DISASTERS AND MISHAPS – EARTHQUAKES

The Hawke's Bay Earthquake, 1931

Catastrophes are of the order of events often loosely
labelled. Comparatively few deserve the distinction, but in
New Zealand it will be generally accepted that the Hawke's
Bay earthquake merits isolation as the Dominion's greatest
disaster. Napier and Hastings in ruins, and half-a-dozen
lesser provincial centres shattered in February 1931,
represent the worst tragedy in the history of the Dominion.
From the debris of earthquake and fire, the bodies of 256
dead were recovered, and no precise inventory has ever been
made of the injuries suffered or the material resources lost.
At the time, the earthquake was estimated to have cost
£5,000,000 in Napier and nearly £2,000,000 in Hastings.

It was at 10.47 a.m. on 3 February 1931 that the first
shock struck Hawke's Bay. Milne's Earthquakes (1939
edition, by A. W. Lee, a standard world text on such matters)
described and illustrated the occurrence at length, and Dr
Charles Davison, a recognised British authority, included the
Hawke's Bay upheaval in his selection of the world's 18 worst
earthquakes in the last 200 years. It would be idle to
attempt in short compass a detailed description of the
destruction of Hawke's Bay's two main centres. In Napier,
familiar landmarks completely disappeared. Bluff Hill, a
substantial suburban promontory, crumbled and all but
disintegrated; Ahuriri Lagoon, a wide stretch of water, was
upthrust to the extent of producing 9,000 acres of dry land;
and some of the city's largest structures—the Nurses' Home, a
Home for the Aged, the Technical College, the Public Library,
the Cathedral, and countless warehouses, office blocks, and
dwellings—collapsed with heavy loss of life. And what the
quake did not destroy a great fire did its best to consume.
With the city's fire-fighting facilities in ruins, Napier was
ablaze within a few minutes of the earthquake, the flames
sweeping through 10 acres of buildings. And in all this 161
people died. In Hastings the story was much the same.
Traders, shoppers, and workers died where they stood as the
town toppled. And in the evening, after a second violent
shock at dusk, fire added to the general chaos. In one large
department store customers and staff perished together, and
in a leading hotel trapped men died in the second wave of
tremors while rescuers toiled to release them. A total of 93
lost their lives in Hastings.

The earthquake's trail of destruction stretched over 300
miles from Wairoa (where two deaths occurred) to Dannevirke
and north Wairarapa. North of Napier great stretches of
coastline slipped into the sea and, throughout the whole
provincial district, roads, railways, bridges,
communications, and public services were either destroyed or
disrupted. Hillsides disappeared, rivers were blocked or
changed their courses, and huge cracks and fissures opened
all over the countryside. The stricken population, up to
30,000 in the centres, were deprived of every elementary
necessity of life—food, water, light, telephones, and
transport. And to complete the devastation and add to the
terror, the earth continued to quiver and shake for 10 days,
some of the succeeding shocks equalling the intensity of the
first disastrous upheaval. The story of courage,
unselfishness, and self-sacrifice displayed in those days in
the shattered areas is an inspiring one, but nothing became
Hawke's Bay more in its adversity than the completeness and
expedition of the rehabilitation it achieved with nationwide
assistance under the two commissioners appointed to direct
the huge task of reconstruction.

The Story

Contents

Browse the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand

How to cite this page: . 'The Hawke's Bay Earthquake, 1931', from An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, originally published in 1966.Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 22-Apr-09URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/1966/disasters-and-mishaps-earthquakes/page-2